I have some pretty exiting news to share with you! I don´t know if you have ever been to www.communalglobal.blogspot.com , I love this blog, it is a place where women from different parts pf the world, share their photos, and so their thoughts and feelings in one way or another! It is a blog that I think celebrates the beauty of life and womanhood, from one culture to the other, and through the eyes of this great ladies you will be able to travel around the world, enjoy our differences and discover our similarities.

Their belief: ¨We have always believed that each culture, and each country, and each and every woman on the planet has positive, lovely, and wonderful things to share with those who will listen, and this blog serves as a home for these formidably good things!¨

I am very proud now to be a part of this amazing journey with them, hope you can take the time to visit and enjoy a trip to Paris, New Zealand, Finland or Hong kong! The other great thing is that I´ll have a linky on Wednesdays!

Life and motherhood.... definitely not always easy or pink. We have our days... our moments. This weekend was one of those ¨moments¨ were it was hard to see the glory.

Caracas has the perfect weather.... so perfect that is something that we don´t even talk about, we don´t need AC, our windows are always open.. lately people use AC in their bedrooms, but is really not necessary. It´s sunny and breezy, weather is just un-existing. We dress how we want to, long sleeves or short sleeves is the same... shorts or pants.... but there are the days that it slightly changes and is a little hotter.... and when this happens.... well, I get hot! haha.... like bad mood hot! If you add to the warmer weather Ari being ¨two¨, Emi´s time of year were she starts to struggle with anxiety, and Ale being as teenager as can be.... well, it doesn´t add up to a perfect weekend.

Still, I know that in between these moments... there is so much good. We just need to breath in and not let how tired we are, or how frustrated we feel to distract us from the gloriousness of life. Because this much I know: glory and magic live in the ordinary, we don´t have to wait for big special moments to have it. Is there all along.

And then right there, in the midst of a pretty hot Sunday, when I felt stressed, and overwhelmed... I decided to still make a good day by night time, and create memories.... We are mothers, we have superpowers we don´t even realize we do... we can change a bad day into a glorious one... we are moms. And that is how this Sunday, turned out a pretty cool one!

We turned our fountain into a cool shower!

Emi taught me how to embrace every single drop of cool water

I turned our ornamental fountain into a water park!

And with a fresher take on our day, we went for lunch at my sister´s and of course... family always makes everyone happy!

And so with that... a pretty hot Sunday turned into a very pink Monday morning!

I was sent this prayer the other day.. it really touched my heart and brought tears to my eyes... for once you have one child I think you have them all. I believe this prayer was said by Pope Francis but really I couldn´t find it online and translate it myself. Anyways is beautiful and I would like to share it with you!

I want to pray for the children that leave everything they touch full of chocolate,for the ones that jump in puddles and ruin their new pants, for the ones that eat candy before their meal and for the ones that never find their shoes in the morning...

I want to pray for the children that look at photographers behind metal fences, and for the ones that have never walked with a new pair of shoes, for the ones that have never played in enchanted places, and that have been born in places where we would never go, and where they will probably die.I want to pray for the children that give us sticky sugary kisses, and flowers. For the ones that sleep with their puppies...for the ones that want to bury their goldfish, and for the children that hug us tightly. For the ones that often forget their lunch money. I want to pray for the children that splatter tooth paste all over the sink, and the ones that look with wonder at their father when he is shaving, and their mom putting make up on.

I also want to pray for the children who have never had dessert, that don´t have a favorite blanket to take everywhere, for the children that see their parents suffer, and for the ones that approach us at traffic lights with wanting eyes asking for money. For the children that don´t have bathrooms to take showers in, and whose pictures appear at police stations and not at their father´s desk. I want to pray for the children whose nightmares happen at daylight, eat whatever they find, and sleep covered by newspapers and not by blankets. For the children that have never been to the dentist, that have never been spoiled by anyone, that wake up hungry and have nowhere to go.

I want to pray for the children that like to be held, and for the children that have to be held. For the ones that give up and for the ones that keep fighting, for the children that don´t find a hand to hold on to.

For all these children Lord, I want to pray today, because they are all treasures, because they all give us love and shape our lives, because they give us a reason to live, because they make us want to build a better world, a fair world.

I pray for all these children and the ones that will be born, for they are our hope, our reward for our life´s work, our dreams come true, our immortality.. and the proof that God still believes in us.

For all the children of the world, may they all be blessed with love and happiness.

My girls.... they are always the good, the great, the amazing in my life! Whatever it is they are doing, well that will surely be the good in my week, in my life!

Being able to spend some time with Ari at the park is always good!

Being attacked by a super kiss is always good too!

Seeing Emi smile, always warms my heart...

The random!

Friday Ale had an open gymnastics class in preparation for upcoming competitions, I was not able to go but Daniel, my stepson and the best brother a girl could ask for, went with her and sent me this picture....

It was also random to see Ari and Gabriel Ignacio (her nephew... haha) enjoy each other´s company and play for hours without fighting!

The fun!

We have not started yet potty training, but every night before taking her bath Ari demands to sit on the toilet! It´s all make pretend but is so much fun to see how she enjoys being an adult! I might as well start potty training soon!

Carpe Diem! that seems to be like the thing you have to do.... more when you are a mom and everyone reminds you to ¨carpe diem¨... seize the day... enjoy them while they are little, they grow up so fast... but the days are so long, and life is so hectic that those little big words sometimes tend to be just a phrase, a pretty one, but unreal. I think that my life now among a toddler and teenagers is like a marathon.... I have my best running shoes on, the best running music, I have trained, but am also out of breath most of the time, my feet hurt, am thirsty, its hot, and even though I might not be enjoying every single minute of the race, there are moments that I am able to pause and breath and enjoy what am doing, to feel proud of what I have accomplished so far, and eager to get to the finish line. And then once I cross the finish line, I know I´ll immediately want to run another race... and even though each mile was treacherous and painful, the feeling of accomplishment I feel at doing something I set my mind to makes sense of the hard work it meant to get there.

Motherhood is a lot like running a marathon or climbing a mountain... we don´t enjoy every single minute of every single day. that´s almost an impossible task specially when you are raising your family, but everyday there are moments worthy of seizing, moments that make up for all the other moments that go by unnoticed, moments worth of a photograph, and when they are worthy of a picture is because they mean something and because they are beautiful, and because those are the moments that matter, and that piece by piece make up the puzzle of our lives. Sometimes this moments don´t necessarily have to be joyous and happy moments, real life is not always perfectly happy, these seize the day moments can be also the moments when you ask for forgiveness, or when you forgive someone, when you cry, when you feel sad but have a shoulder to cry on, and by acknowledging those little moments am sure that years from now when I see these regular and uneventful pictures I will remember an ordinary day as extraordinary, and I will again know that it´s been good!

Everyday, in the middle of my very hectic life, there is always a magical moment... the thing here is to be able to recognize them and stop for a minute to cherish them... to ¨Carpe¨ them. For me this moments are simple.....

Is the magic of suddenly seeing Ari´s love for a wooden dog she found in the middle of a store, and how she looked at me peacefully and innocently unaware of her surroundings, begging me without words to love this little one!

Is the joy I see in my dad´s face whenever he is with one of his grandchildren!

Is enjoying, seeing, and feeling Ari´s life as she slides down for the 30th time!

I stop and breathe in moments like this when I see cousins becoming best friends for life!

And my hearts jumps with joy in moments when I see sisterhood making it´s way into my girls lives!

And then there are this so very ordinary moments when the girls get home from school and they just run me over with hugs and kisses.... and then I say selfieeee.... and they say yessss!!!!!

Lately I have come across a few articles on how to talk to your kids while they are toddlers or preschoolers so when they arrive at ¨that¨ age (tween/teens) they talk to you, or better yet... listen to you. And guess what, as interesting as these articles are, and as many times as I have read articles like these, nothing prepared me for teenage years.

I have two tweens at home and we all have Ari, our toddler! Raising my girls while they were little was really a piece of cake.. hard work? well yes, but hard work the of the type that just gets you physically tired but not emotional exhausted....

When your children are little you just have to get them through life and teach them fundamental values and pretty basic things to ¨survive¨... we teach them how to ask for things, how to say please and thank you, brush your teeth, go to bed.. eat your vegetables... we also help them make sense of who they are in relationship to others, and how to interact with people around them... we even teach them to smile when they say hello... But then, all of a sudden comes life and changes everything... and your baby is not a baby anymore, she is ten or twelve and no matter how many books you have read, how many parenting classes you have attended, once again you feel like you are in in a whole new world... like a brand new mama.

And then suddenly you are speechless.... You doubt yourself, and start over-thinking how to approach things with them.... it doesn´t matter how many books you have read, nothing prepares you for this. At least... nothing prepared me. Ale has always been very strong-willed, we even called her Jack Bauer (the actor form 24) since she wouldn´t break ever.... when she said NO, that was a NO, one of the happiest girls I´ve known, but strong willed. Emi has always been much on the lighter side, maybe sweeter, and more attentive to other people´s feelings, easier child I would say.

So up to now for me it has been more on understanding personalities than following a guideline for speaking to your tween. For example, with Emi, and maybe because she is only ten, we still have a very open and straight forward conversation. We can speak about anything and she welcomes me in every aspect of her life always valuing what I have to say. With Ale is a complete different story. At this point in time, what has worked for me is doing a little research with other friends and moms (AKA spying!!!) and talking to her as if it had nothing to do with her. I make up stories about imaginary teenagers, and talk about topics that I know she is going through, but if I try just ¨interviewing¨ her I will not find a very receptive Ale!. That has been the best way that I have found that allows me to really say my word in a way that I know she is listening without feeling judged or analyzed. And some days... I just feel happy and satisfied by just watching TV at night with them, no talking needed, just plain hugs and kisses. At the end, all I want for them is to one day live with the confidence and independence to make it on their own, the conscience and compassion to do right by others and not be indifferent to other people´s sufferings, the strength and the courage to be humble, and to trust me and their home as their safe haven today and always. But first we need to get trough these teen years, through the eye rolling, the arguing, the back talking... because at the end I know that right now they are figuring out who they are in this big scary world... and I have to trust myself that maybe am teaching more by example than by words!

So the one advice that I could give you is to follow your heart, teach by example and simply LOVE your children! All you need is LOVE!

Here in Venezuela we have the Holy Week off, kind of like US¨s spring break, with the difference that is a religious holiday. But then of course, we also take advantage of the break and usually go to Margarita Island to my parents´ beach house.

Because blogging doesn´t happen in bubble, nor does life... or vacations, this one had a rough start... The week had been pretty messy, Ari got sick, with a very high fever, I could tell she had a throat infection and an ear ache... to make matters worse, she would not by any means take any type of medicine. Took her to the doctor Tuesday morning, and she had what I thought she had, the problem was that we couldn´t get her to take her antibiotics, the solution was to inject her three days in a row. It might sound like a drastic solution... but trust me, this two year old has the will of a gladiator! So with Ari being sick, plus real life, I had no time preparing in peace for our trip. That led me to not printing the plane tickets until the taxi was waiting outside... It was 1 pm, and according to my wonderful memory, our flight was at 4 pm, I really thought I had checked online our plane tickets several times and our departure time was 4:00 pm... when we got in the cab to drive to the airport I looked down at the tickets once again and realized our flight was at 14:00 hrs... which meant I had really messed up here and we were never going to get on time to the airport. Real life. Luckily for me, Gabriel maintained his cool (am still wandering how he did it!), and even though we missed our original flight and all the planes to the Island were overbooked, we were able to pull some strings and boarded at 7pm. It was a very stressful afternoon, the girls wanted to kill me, I am sure Gabriel did too, but as it turns out, luck was on our side and we made it to the Margarita!

Margarita Island, and my parents beach house ¨Miel y Papelon¨ is a tropical paradise for me!Here I promise you that I spend the days just breathing in God’s majestic views, and breathing in life. The sounds of the waves, of the cool breeze, the continuous laughter of the kids muffled by the sound of the ocean is all the fuel I need to realize once again that I am living the dream!

And trust me, as beautiful as this island is, is not paradise because of that, is paradise because here my girls grow as sisters, they become sisters to their cousins, they become friends for life, I find my sister again, and my mom and dad aside from really being the greatest grandparents in the whole world, are able to be the very best for ¨25¨ hours a day! So as you can see.... yes, this is paradise!

Here as my dad said.... ¨Ari found herself a new slave¨!!!

Memories at the beach.. many... but then there are the memories at the beach house, and those might not make as pretty pictures, but am sure they might make for prettier memories.

Every morning we wake up to the voice of many excited kids .... sometimes of an excited grandpa waiting for company. And even though I am not much of a morning person, waking up to this sounds and the smell of fresh made arepas in the outside kitchen, and a table full of my loves just makes for a perfect morning!

This last picture is not of this vacation but I didn´t take one of all of us sitting at the table this time.

Evenings at Miel y Papelon...

fancy dinners with not so fancy plastic plates!

Waiting for Abeyo to get home from buying the day´s catch for dinner... this is so cute!

These little two.... there are many types of love... their love... well it just makes your heart bigger! Pali is the only boy in the house, and he has our hearts with his kindness, sweetness and love, and then because I think he looks a lot like me, well.... I tend to play mom to a boy whenever he is with me, and while on vacation that happens for the whole time!

On Palm Sunday we went to Church and then went for some ice cream at the mall

This is our stop for Cocada everyday after the beach... Cocada is a very typical drink, kind of a coconut smoothy made of coconut and coconut milk! It is soooo good! We also have hand made coconut ice cream sold at the beach in its very own shell, and you can also buy coconut water straight from the coconut, right on the sand!

For some sightseeing I exchanged my tween for the sweestest nephew you could ask for!!!

and of course the best of the best.... real life love, in front of the camera or behind, perfect smiles, real hugs, sun kissed girls who couldn´t love each other a little bit more!

To me, the smiles of these 6 children is what makes this vacation and the captured memories from it even more special. I'll look back at all these moments where kids are smiling and waves are breaking and cheeks are sun kissed red, hair is beautifully messy and salty, and I'll know that this little part of this puzzle, is good, it was easy but also it was hard earned.... because family, although it looks easy and beautiful in pictures, is hard work. And every memory, every smiling moment, every great picture, every vacation, every beach trip to Margarita, is hard work... with the best reward ever, a heart full of love and memories to piece all of us together!

Hi! my name is Carolina Perisse de Rico, I am a stay at home architect with the biggest project ever... my girls! The oldest is 13, then I have an 11 year old, and now I am starting again with our three year old happiest toddler ever. Glad you are here, hope you stay a while!